Cyborg
by Delillium
Summary: The built up stress on Tony's heart has made his body slowly reject the arc reactor. The only way to cure the infection it's causing, is to remove it. Tony would rather die, and he will if he can't make the sacrifice and put down his irrational fears. But it might take a team of super heroic freaks and one lover to convince him to finally do it. Tony's never been an easy case.


He wouldn't have ever told her, he'd of kept it a deep dark secret, if only she wasn't straddling him with tears in her eyes.

Black tear streaks marked her cheeks like a newly made widow and her bangs were in a tangled mess. Her fists were planted firmly on either side of his arc reactor, and he grit his teeth as he sucked in a labored breath.

She had no idea how much pain she was putting him through.

Not just her banging on the sides of the delicate machinery that made him whole, but the depression in her eyes.

Just as well, _he_ had no idea how much pain _he_ put _her_ through either. The distance in his eyes that were a million miles away and the moment when the usual steady rise and fall of his chest suddenly seized, fell, and didn't rise.

Tony put his hands firmly around her forearms and the gentle squeeze gave her comfort, she collapsed ontop of him, holding her ear to his shirt to listen to his heart beat.

"You stopped breathing."

"I know."

He wrapped his arms around her shaking body, his eyes closing and tears collected in the bags beneath his eyes, "Maybe I should've pretended to be out cold and you would've given me CPR?"

She slapped him lightly, "D-Don't you change the sub-subject, Sta-Stark! And no excuses. Tell me the…" She breathed, "…the truth!"

This time, I don't have any excuse to tell you, Pepper. I just know what's going to happen and…"He fell silent, looking up to her, still attempting to catch his breath slowly.

"Y-You're lying!" She sobbed, her hands shaking, "I can't-…I can't-…"

She groaned and fell into a fit of choked sobs and hitched words just in the back of her throat.

"Shh…" He whispered, stroking her hair softly and placing her bangs back into their place, "Pepper, I love you. I don't have much time left."

"What's h-happened?"

"The stress overtime that I've put on my heart is causing my body to shut down and reject the arc reactor, it' causing infection that I can't prevent. I would have to remove the arc reactor to cure it, but you know just as well that I can't-"

"You _can; _you've never tried! You've always been too afraid!" Hope was in her eyes, but she knew that was too easy.

"I _won't_, Pepper. I _won't _let them save me just for me to be in some kind of pain for the rest of my life! I'd rather be dead."

"Than I would rather be too! If you die, I'll kill myself and you can't do anything about tha-that! Because you'll be dead, Mr. Stark! Are you arrogant enough that y-you think you can actually control me from beyond the grave?"

"I-…" Tony paused, but he finally took a breath, "Pepper, I'm sorry."

She detached herself from him, rolling over into her position on the bed, "Can't I at least….spend your last few weeks with you? Can't you tell Fury and let him relieve you from-"

"He'll try and make me get the surgery. But…"

She jumped up from the bed, slipping a pair of black jeans on over her girl briefs, and a dark green coat on almost simultaneously, if possible. Then, tying the waist belt, she started putting on her black flats, stumbling while doing so.

She wiped a stray tear as she started out the door.

"Pepper…" Tony groaned as he realized with his sluggish brain, what she was doing, "Pepper, wait.."

He slowly scrambled from his place on the bed and she put her hair in a low pony-tail, briskly walking out the door. He followed out next, not realizing how late it was in the morning.

Typically, Pepper was an early riser, but he must've forgot in the adrenaline packed morning they had already, that it was a Sunday and Pepper didn't start working until the afternoons on Sundays.

He saw a clock as he dashed out the door after her, and was shocked to find it was already ten thirty.

"Pepper, wait! Let's _talk _about this, babe."

They passed the dining room, where, of course, the peanut gallery watched in humble interest. "No, I understand now! You have to much damn pride to care about me! Why didn't I realize this two years ago? I'll never be anything more than a girlfriend to you."

"No, Pep, listen to me for just a second. C'mon. Look, I _knew _this situation would come up eventually-"

"And you didn't even talk to me about it?"

"You'd worry!"

"Damn right, I'd worry! We could've figured this out while we had time to!"

"I've _been _trying to figure it out! If _I_ can't, then-"

"Oh, well I'm sorry not everyone graduated from MIT when they hadn't even reached puberty yet."

"That's not what I'm trying to say."

"What _are _you trying to say?"

"Damn it, Pepper, I'm gonna do it."

Her car keys hit the floor.

She took a cautious step forward and every inch of fiery red drained from her face, "You mean it?"

He took a nervous breath and cocked his head to the side, and nodded a little, "If worse should come to worse and I live in miserable agonizing pain, well, at least I have you. Oh, and the peanut gallery to laugh at." He jutted a thumb to the confusion-struck faces who turned away suddenly.

She blushed considerably and dashed towards Tony, wrapping her arms around him, "I'm sorry I got so mad at you, I didn't mean any of what I said and-"

"Pepper…" Tony squealed slightly, looking down at the arc reactor, she pushed herself away.

"Oh, right.."

Tony turned to the see the still, confused faces of his team members. They looked away quickly, facing down to their individual breakfast foods.

"I'll do it, I promise, just give me some time."

She wrapped her arms around him, "Okay, okay…" She nodded once and looked him in the eyes, his hairs stood up on end and he smiled. She closed the gap between them and he never wanted to part, but eventually she did and she held his face in her hands. "I'll see you later."

He turned around, his hands planted firmly on his hips and just as the doors to the elevator closed in front of her, he made his way to the mini-bar.

"Drinking so early there, Commander?" Barton asked.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely. I can't wake up for some reason.."

"Normal people drink coffee." Captain Speedo, as dubbed by the one and only true alcoholic of the bunch, said.

"Don't be jealous."

Jarvis suddenly came over the intercom, "Sir, if I may suggest to you, I could easily wake you up."

"Not now-"

Coming over in a blood curdling scream, was the AC/DC song, Shoot To Thrill left off in the middle of it's track. "-..PULL THE TRIGGER!"

Tony dropped his glass, his eyes wide, and jumped backwards a couple of steps.

"I GET UNDER YOUR SKIN JUST LIKE A BOMB THAT'S READY TO BLOW!"

"Damn it, Jarvis!"

He shut it off briskly, "Too loud? I thought that's how you liked it."

"Your sarcasm has been noted, also note that Butterfingers-…no, scratch that, Dummy needs to come up and clean this up."

As though Jarvis had prepared this, Dummy was up in two seconds flat, with a dust pan and broom as well as a cloth to clean up the excess alcohol. Tony had his arms folded, "Dummy?" He asked in a fatherly tone.

Dummy turned around, making a rather guilty sounding few beeps.

"Did you plan this with your brother, Jarvis?"

A few more beeps and it was as if Tony understood, "Uh huh, right. Well, you've earned yourself a late upgrade mister, back to the lab with you. And tell Butterfingers he'll be sharing the punishment."

Dummy cowered his head, making a few more beeps.

"Oh, wait, before you go, make Daddy another drink."

_'Want to make yourself, useful, Tony? Hm? Fine then! Make Daddy another drink and leave him alone, he has too much work for all this play!' _

_He waved his glass in front of his face. Tony grabbed the glass quickly, always just wanting to help._

"On a second thought, never mind, Daddy's going to follow church boy Uncle Steve's advice and get some coffee."

Steve raised an eyebrow and Tony made his way to the glasses to be cut off by a brisk robot who extended himself to reach the heights of the cabinet, "What're you doing, Dummy?"

He beeped a little and Tony went blank, "Oh, okay. Thanks."

"What is this language they speak, friend?"

Tony looked to Thor, "Oh, it's binary through beeps. See, one beep means-"

He stopped, was he really attempting to explain this to someone who still couldn't pick up on the modern grammar English?

"Uh, never mind, on second thought. It's complicated."

The robot beeped a couple more times as he readied the coffee to it's master's liking and Tony laughed a little.

"Yeah, tell me about it, Dummy. Maybe I should rename you."

It made a few more beeps that sounded almost like laughter.

Tony laughed a little again, and Butterfingers came sliding across the kitchen, falling on his face.

"Hey, hey, you okay there little buddy? We don't want a re-do of last month do we? Huh? No, no we don't."

Barton gave a perturbed look, "I don't think I'll ever get used to living here."

"Me either." Tony replied with a grin, and Butterfingers handed him his phone. Starkphone, of course.

Tony turned it on just as his coffee slid into position in front of him.

"You know, it's amazing how far their intellect extends.." Bruce commented.

"It's amazing how far _my _intellect extends." Tony cockily remarked with a matching cocky smile.

Tony looked over his emails once over, "Ah, shit. Butterfingers, go get Daddy his wallet."

He beeped.

"I don't know. I think the last time I had it was when I stumbled home drunk a couple weeks ago, where was I?"

He beeped a couple more times again and Tony smiled, "Good boy."

He rushed off to retrieve it and Tony breathed contently before looking up to view the audience before him, "What?"

"You refer to yourself as _Daddy_ to _robots_?" Steve asked.

"Of course, that's what _they_ call me."

"Jarvis doesn't." Natasha noted.

"Jarvis is my masterpiece, thank you very much, his self-awareness modem is off the charts, his intellect sky-rockets past most of American society, thanks."

He looked to the now weeping Dummy, "Dummy, I love you in every conceivable way, you are special just like both of your other brothers. You may not be the smartest, but you're the most capable of doing whatever I ask. Jarvis has to butt in too much and butterfingers shouldn't be handling my wallet right now, I thought I'd give you a break."

He perked up instantly at the pre-made speech that sounded overused, but all the same, the robot gave a couple happy beeps just as Butterfingers slid into the kitchen again, sliding his wallet across the table and Dummy caught it before it fell over the side, placing it carefully before his master.

Tony smiled, "Thank you, boys."

"I think they're cool." Steve remarked, "Don't get me wrong. They're just…unusual to me."

"So are aliens and Germanic Pagan Gods." Tony murmured.

He took a card out of his wallet and started typing furiously just as another e-mail came in.

"So, Tony, what was happening with you and the Misses this morning, huh?" Barton asked cooly with a smile.

Tony looked up, "Huh? Oh, nothing. Re-decorating, you know how it is."

Natasha quirked her eyebrows, "I think that Pepper's way too down to Earth for that."

He read the new email first, as it's sender seemed to be coming from SHIELD.

"Damn it, Fury in ten." Tony announced, and in five seconds flat, no one was questioning Tony anymore.


End file.
